Peter Ibbetson is a 1935 film starring Gary Cooper and Ann Harding. The film was based upon a 19th century novel, which was recreated in a 1917 play, a silent film, an opera from just a few years before the movie's release, a radio play and a television version in the 1950s. This story really got around.
Cooper and Harding were childhood friends, separated by fate and drawn back together in their dreams. In this way, Cooper's character overcomes a lifetime prison sentence and a debilitating injury. Not to spoil it for you, but the pair end up together in the afterlife, as well. If you believe in higher beings watching over you and guiding you to your intended purpose, this is the film for you.
Stokes' Ghost hails from Monterey County. It is a Petite Sirah which is named for a phony doctor who killed more patients than he saved. Interesting back story.
1948's Portrait of Jennie also comes from a novel, one that is highly acclaimed as a fantasy masterwork. There was also a radio play taken from the script but, alas, no opera. Dizzy Gillespie did have a 1970 album by the same title, but it has nothing to do with the movie. It does, however, have a ten-minute version of "Diddy Wa Diddy," which is almost as enticing as the legendary half-hour-long version of "Louie Louie," recorded at a Hells Angels get-together. A little something for your esoterica playlist.
Jennie stars Jennifer Jones in the title role and Joseph Cotten as an aspiring artist who meets her in the park. He paints her portrait and develops a crush on her, but every time he runs into her, she seems to be getting older and older - and living a life from another time. Pretty spooky. The film was not received well at its release, but has aged well through the years, perhaps better than Jennie herself.
"So Jennie" is a non-alcoholic sparkling wine - and just how did France let that happen? At $60 a bottle, you’re supposed to buy into the "luxury" aspect that’s touted in the ad copy. Better to try Flora Springs Ghost Winery Malbec for the same price, a Napa red that keeps alive the spirit of the original winery, which fell victim to phylloxera, the Great Depression and Prohibition.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir appeared in 1947, with Gene Tierney as the lady and Rex Harrison as the ghost of a dead sailor. He falls for her, as any ghost worth his salt would, and things go merrily along until she gets a hankering for a real, live man. As it turns out, he is already married and has a family in another town. But don’t give up on Mrs. Muir and the ghost. True love has a way of drifting off into the ether when the time is right.
Muirwood Vineyards is in Monterey County, and their Chardonnay comes oaked and unoaked, for the pleasure of beautiful women or old seadogs, dead or alive. Also, Santa Barbara County's Babcock Winery has an Ocean's Ghost Pinot Noir.
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